


The End… And What Came After

by jedipati



Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Armageddon, Crack, Gen, actual end of the world, it ends well, it's ok, or at least crack adjacent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-28
Updated: 2019-06-28
Packaged: 2020-05-28 07:13:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19389115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jedipati/pseuds/jedipati
Summary: This was the last battle.  Aziraphale and Crowley faced it side by side.  And then they faced the aftermath, side by side.





	The End… And What Came After

**Author's Note:**

> I had told my sister (who is in fandom) that I wasn’t going to write Good Omens fic. I hadn’t planned on it. I honestly didn’t feel the need. Except for this. Also, just a quick warning, there’s some rather dodgy theology here.

Aziraphale ducked, which allowed Crowley to slide a knife right into the demon that had attacked them.

This was the final battle, the true, inevitable end of the world. Two thousand years ago, it had been a false end, and Aziraphale had been there to see it stopped. But this… the armies of Heaven and Hell had started at Megiddo, but they’d since spilled across the world.

Aziraphale and Crowley, not really being part of the armies, hadn’t been informed until the fighting had already started, and they’d had to improvise quickly. They both had some weapons either divine or diabolical, and they’d barely gotten to them before someone attacked.

A demon had found them, and attacked Aziraphale, then not five minutes later, an angel attacked Crowley.

After that, Crowley and Aziraphale had found a decent building to build a defense from.

At first, they’d tried to protect humans, too, but by now… Aziraphale shook his head. He didn’t want to think about it.

Things were slowing down, and Aziraphale was sure the end of the fighting- the end of everything- would be soon.

“Not long now,” he said quietly as they waited for the next attack.

“No,” Crowley agreed. They looked at each other briefly, but neither wanted to take their attention off their surroundings. 

“My dear,” Aziraphale started, then stopped. They’d already said everything there was to say, and they were just waiting.

“Angel,” Crowley replied. Eight thousand years, they’d been on Earth, just the two of them, while other angels and demons had only briefly visited. It was no surprise that they’d fight this side by side, despite and because of everything.

They didn’t need to breath, so they simply waited. 

And then, as they waited, Light and Love flooded the world. Aziraphale gasped, reaching out and catching Crowley as the demon collapsed.

“Too much,” the demon gasped. Aziraphale tried to shield him from the sheer Presence, even as he knew it was futile. 

A second later, they were… elsewhere. Aziraphale couldn’t hope to describe it, but everyone- everyone- was there. Every human, every angel, every demon who had ever existed stood in this space. 

Almost as soon as they were there, Crowley flinched, then pushed himself up. “I’m… fine now,” he said as Aziraphale glanced at him.

The Presence hadn’t lessened, if anything it was stronger, but Aziraphale believed him.

They stood there, side by side, in this massive crowd. And then She was there.

Aziraphale fell to his knees, only to realize that Crowley- that the entire crowd- had knelt down as well. He wanted to look at Crowley, but he couldn’t turn his eyes from the Almighty.

That was fine. He knew Crowley was fine beside him. 

She moved through the crowd, stopping to speak with each person there. Aziraphale waited, but it was as though no time had passed when she stopped in front of him. “Lord,” Aziraphale said.

“Well done, Aziraphale,” She said. “Through all your trials and stumbles, you kept Faith.” She moved on to Crowley, but try as he might, Aziraphale couldn’t hear what she said.

The tears weren’t a surprise, but they didn’t seem to be sad tears.

A second later, Aziraphale realized he was crying too.

And then… She was done, except for one being. She stopped in front of Lucifer. Suddenly, Aziraphale could hear Her again. All of creation waited to know what She would say to the devil.

“Well done, you who had the loneliest, most forsaken path,” She said, reaching down to cup Lucifer’s cheek. “Well done indeed.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sometime into eternity later, Aziraphale sat in a park on Earth, enjoying the perfect weather (it was always perfect now), and listening to the children play.

Aziraphale was reading a new book on physics, cowritten by Albert Einstein, Steven Hawking, and Isaac Newton. Of course, they could have just asked how the universe worked, but like so many scientists, they were having fun figuring it out for themselves.

He paused as his backrest shook- again. He was leaning against Crowley as the other angel (Aziraphale still rejoiced a little when he thought that) also read. His book was a study on nebula and star formation by Tycho Brahe and Annie Cannon. But every so often he would shake in laughter. 

“You might as well get it out, Crowley,” Aziraphale said. “Whatever it is that’s making you laugh.”

And that was it. Crowley started snickering, and eventually progressed to a full laugh that had been all too rare on the old Earth.

Aziraphale smiled as he listened to Crowley laugh. Finally, when it had faded to occasional chuckles, they shifted so Aziraphale could look at him. “And what exactly was so funny?” Around them, the children continued their games.

“The look… the look on Lucifer’s face when She talked to him,” Crowley said, interrupted by a few more chuckles. “And… She’s just enough of a bastard to be worth liking!”

**Author's Note:**

> This is very much inspired by an older drabble-length fic with the same premise- the End of the World, and what came after. I first read that fic a long time ago, and can’t find it again. I hadn’t planned on writing Good Omens, but after an appeal to tumblr couldn’t find the fic, I wrote this, just to have something of that original drabble back again.
> 
> Like I said, it’s inspired from that drabble, including Crowley’s last line about God, and at least partially what God said to Lucifer. If anyone can find that drabble, I’d happily link to it here. I’d really like to find that drabble again, because for some reason, I still remember it, even a decade or more after reading it. (And, I’d like to stress, it was shorter than this was.)
> 
> If the original author feels this is too derived from their fic, I’ll take it down, I promise. Otherwise, enjoy!


End file.
